We do ours in triple batches. Usually I just use all purpose flour, but this year I tried pastry flour for about half the batches. Usually we use Crisco shortening, but since they went transfat free, the resulting dough has a very different texture, so I'm trying a new brand. As you can see by the photo, we also add egg and some herbs to the mix. With so many batches to make, there's no way we'd do it all by hand! I get one of my daughters to measure and sift the batches of dry ingredients while I use a kettle to boil the water and a food processor to whip up the liquid ingredients. Then I transfer it to my KitchenAide mixer (best kitchen appliance I never paid for! *L*) with a beater attachment. After beating in several cups of flour, I transfer to a dough hook and finish it off. Then the dough it divided into three balls and set aside for chilling while the next triple batch is made.

Once all the batches were done, they joined the meat on the balcony to chill. The bright orange dough is a new experiment this year; instead of herbs, the last two triple batches have paprika in them. Should be interesting!

While the dough chilled, we headed out to do our annual Christmas family photo. The meat is now inside to get closer to room temperature. It won't take long, as it didn't freeze overnight; not even at the edges. I'll have photos of the assembly later on. Whether or not I get them up by tonight is a different thing. ;-)